


Recovery (By Inches)

by kay_el



Category: Tomb Raider (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Falling In Love, Flashbacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Recovery, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-15
Updated: 2014-07-15
Packaged: 2018-02-08 23:21:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1959966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kay_el/pseuds/kay_el
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lara and Sam may have escaped the island, but you can't fight your way out of a flashback.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Recovery (By Inches)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for raidintombs on tumblr, who prompted: "Mamihlapinatapei - The look between two people in which each loves the other but is too afraid to make the first move"

After Yamatai, things were different. It was all they could do, to try and with the consequences. The trauma that left Sam screaming in the middle of the night and Lara losing her license for erratic driving.

It felt like they were stuck in limbo. Stuck trying to remember how to live a normal life, while still looking over their shoulders every third step.

They moved in together, in London. Somewhere where they could hear the city around them, the proof that they had left the island. They both spent a lot of time together curled up in the same bed, elbows and knees jumbled together. They both spent a lot of time staring at nothing, stuck in their own heads, too quiet and too still.

Lara’s fists would clench in her lap, her teeth would grind, and she would be back on the island, shooting one of the Solari in the head with Roth’s shotgun.

Sam’s hands would shake, and she would start to hyperventilate, and she wasn’t on the island like Lara, but she could hear Himiko’s voice in her head, could feel the fire consume potential hosts. Sam became a house of echoes, and nothing Lara did could get her to stop shaking.

It was different now. Living together. But some things were the same, even after everything that had happened.

Whispered secrets in the dark. Linked arms. When Sam was starting to smile again, Lara took her out stargazing, and helped her take pictures of the sunrise.

One morning, Lara was at the breakfast table, reading over the Daily Mail and buttering toast. The news was all rage, conflict, and Lara didn’t freeze up. She smiled to herself, thought about what Roth would say. “Progress, Lara. Recovery is recovery. You do this shit by inches.”

Sam padded into the kitchen in bare feet, leaning around Lara’s shoulder to steal a piece of toast. She made a face at the news and flipped through it for the Arts section, settling down in the chair to Lara’s left with a sigh.

Lara smiled at her, munching on buttery toast in the early morning. Her head was haloed by the rising sun, and while she looked nothing like the paintings of her ancestor Himiko, she looked beautiful.

Sam glanced up, and their eyes met. The entirety of London could have been sucked into a vortex and neither of them would have noticed.

Lara took her first deep breath since the crash on Yamatai; it was like she was finally home.

(Sam’s body went still, and her head was finally, finally quiet.)

They were interrupted, because nothing stays contained in a city. There were sirens in the distance. The kettle whistled.

Lara got up to start the tea, and her fingers brushed Sam’s shoulder. For the first time in a long time, it felt like they were headed in the right direction.


End file.
